On Dennis Miller’s Tuesday radio show, National Review columnist Mark Steyn argued that the success of U.S. military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan has not been proportional to the total amount of U.S. military spending.
Steyn, author of “After America: Get Ready for Armageddon,” told host Dennis Miller the U.S. military has lacked an outright win for the last 68 years, which is not what you would expect from a country with so much military funding.
“Something is wrong,” Steyn said. “You know, America has not unambiguously won a war since 1945. That is two-thirds of a century, and considering this country is responsible for about 46 percent of the planet’s military spending, I think that ought to be an issue. And what’s happening in Afghanistan, where it is America’s longest war and 48 hours after the last American soldier departs, it will be as if we were never there.”
Thus, Steyn said it was time to evaluate how the Pentagon should function.
“I mean I really think — if I were to be elected president and I don’t want to start any new birther conspiracies on your show, but if I were to be elected president, I think the first thing I would do is actually have a top-to-toe review of what the Pentagon, of what the U.S. military is supposed to be for and what the U.S. national interest is, because we can’t keep going to war like the world’s biggest NGO and fighting as if we’re some sort of global traffic cop with no interest of our own.”